12³⁄₄ in. (32.3 cm.) high

Franz Graf von Erbach zu Erbach (1754-1823); thence by continuous descent within the family.
Property of a European Nobleman; Antiquities, Christie's, London 12 December 1984, lot 128.

E.G. Anthes, Die Antiken der Gräflich-Erbach-Erbachischen Sammlung zu Erbach i.O., Darmstadt, 1885, p. 37, no. 30.
J.D. Beazley, "A Paestan Vase," American Journal of Archaeology 48, no. 4, 1944, p. 365.
A.D. Trendall, "Paestan Pottery: A Revision and a Supplement," Papers of the British School at Rome 20, 1952, p. 3, no. 13.
A.D. Trendall, The Red-Figured Vases of Lucania, Campania, and Sicily, Oxford, 1967, p. 205, no. 38.
H. Prückner, "Erbacher Vasen," in H.A. Cahn and E. Simon, eds., Tainia: Roland Hampe zum 70. Geburtstag am 2. Dezember 1978, dargebracht von Mitarbeitern, Schülern und Freunden, Mainz am Rhein, 1980, p. 491, pl. 97.1.
A.D. Trendall, The Red-Figured Vases of Lucania, Campania and Sicily, third supplement, London, 1983, p. 101, no. 64.
A.D. Trendall, The Red-Figured Vases of Paestum, London, 1987, p. 27, no. 15, pl. 2f.
K. Hamma, ed., The Dechter Collection of Greek Vases, San Bernardino, 1989, p. 42, no. 46.
V. Heenes, Die Vasen der Sammlung des Grafen Franz I. von Erbach zu Erbach, Bodenheim, 1998, p. 83, no. 149, pl. 38.5-38.6.

San Bernardino and Northridge, University Art Galleries, California State University, The Dechter Collection of Greek Vases, 5 May 1989-30 March 1990.

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Lot Essay

The Dirce Painter was an important Sicilian vase-painter, likely working at Syracuse, during the first quarter of the 4th century B.C. As Trendall informs (The Red-figure Vases of South Italy and Sicily, p. 29), he is “an artist of considerable significance not only because he established certain canons of vase-decoration which were followed by his Sicilian successors, but also as the chief ‘forerunner’ of both early Campanian and Paestan.” Trendall attributes only 22 vases to him, mostly calyx- or bell-kraters. On the Dechter vase, a centaur wielding a tree-trunk attacks a warrior with a spear and shield, while the bust of a satyr emerges behind a raised groundline, looking down from above.